Whistles have been in use for centuries for various forms of signaling. In particular, whistles have been used in sports officating to indicate initiating play, stoppage of play, penalties and other uses. These whistles come in various forms such as pea whistles, pea-less whistles, electronic whistles and other types.
The whistles used for sports officating are typically either held in the officials mouth, in their hand, worn on lanyards around the neck, or in one popular form, on fingergrips. The wearing the whistle in the mouth during play is discouraged as the official is prone to injury with the whistle in the mouth, the possibility of the whistle being dropped, the inability to talk, and the possibility of an inadvertent whistle. Carrying the whistle in the hand can result in the whistle being dropped during play. Wearing the whistle on a lanyard around the neck keeps the whistle safe, but can lead to delays while the whistle is located. Fingergrip whistles, such as the Fox 40 whistle, distributed by Fox 40 International is similar to the whistle described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,325, issued to Woronets and shown in FIG. 1, incorporated herein by reference. The fingergrip whistle allows officials to wear the whistle on one or more fingers so that the whistle is always ready.
One problem with the use of the fingergrip style of whistle is the inability to use two hands to signal the penalty or other reason for whistle being blown until after the whistle has been blown. As shown in FIG. 2, many times the official must use two hands for the indication for the whistle. This is not a problem with the use of a neck lanyard, but creates a problem when a fingergrip whistle is being used. The official must remove the whistle from the mouth in order to use both hands. Since it is often critical to signal as quickly as possible to keep play going forward, this can be a problem with fingergrip whistles.
Another issue that comes up with the use of fingergrip whistles is that they are not usable with users having restricted movement in one arm. Some users may have a temporary or permanently disability in the movement of one arm. Since fingergrip whistles require one arm to move the whistle to the mouth and maintained there while the whistle is blown, the user is unable to signal the action.